Hepatitis B I Can't Believe

Hepatitis B I can't believe my luck. Here I am, the first person in my family to ever attend college, and within a couple of months of my being here, I've discovered that I have hepatitis B The good news, at least, is that I finally know what it is that has been bothering me. I endured a couple of really scary weeks there when I did not know what was wrong with me.

It was so weird, I had a really low grade fever and my muscles had a dull ache deep inside. I would get nauseous when I tried to work out, and I was constantly tired. Even worse, I didn't feel like eating or doing much of anything else, and my skin was starting to take on a sallow, pale tint. That is when I decided to go to the free health clinic and get checked out.

It was pretty scary, because I was not sure of what they would tell me. I was actually tested for a variety of illnesses which the doctors said my symptoms could be indicative of. In the end, the liver function test narrowed it down to hepatitis. The doctor said that my liver was actually inflamed and was so bad it possibly could have burst. I was really confused, of course, and was not sure how I could have got something of this nature.

When the doctor told me it can be passed via unprotected sex, however, I suddenly understood. I'm usually very careful about that sort of thing, but I was really inebriated the first couple of weeks I was here, and was not as prudent as I usually am. I'm pretty sure that I got this disease from unprotected sex, but the doctor told me that there are several other was one can develop this condition as well.

Any contact with an infected person's blood can result in transmission of the disease, including via transfusions and other means within health care facilities. Shared needles are another common means of transmitting this virus, as is the sharing of other personal hygiene items. It has been approximately four weeks since the doctor's diagnosis was made, and I feel substantially better now than I did before.

The doctor said that I'm pretty healthy now, although I was bedridden for about two weeks during which time I changed my diet substantially to eat more fruits and vegetables and less red meat per the advice of the physician. I have also substantially increased my fluids intake -- I now drink eight glasses of water a day. The physician told me that for someone with my degree of health, the main thing is to attempt to prevent any further inflammations or flare up of this virus.

He said that as long as I continue to maintain my health, the only things we have to do is carefully monitor my liver, primarily with blood tests, and to stay cognizant of any other potential hazardous effects to related bodily functions (Dugdale, 2010). That way I can avoid anything drastic, such as the need for a liver transplant.

Although the acute stage of this disease has gone away in my body, after it lasted approximately three weeks, I still have to stick to my regiment of eating healthy, drinking lots of fluids, and not overexerting myself. The latter is difficult, especially for a first year college student, but I am learning to pace myself. The physician also quoted me a number of facts that are relevant about the incidence of hepatitis b Apparently.